by Olha Romaniuk

Created on: July 31, 2009   Last Updated: August 01, 2009

Time to pack up your bags, say the last goodbyes, and get on the road to head to college. It is the day that many high school graduates anticipate with excitement - it is the day they become a little more independent and venture out on their own into the collegiate world. College, indeed, offers a lot of things to look forward to - new friends, new experiences, plenty of socializing and growing up. It is the world that can envelop and overwhelm a new college student and a lot of things and people from the past can be involuntarily put on hold along the way, to let the college experience sink all the way in.

How does a newbie freshman take it all in without forgetting about his or her past? How do the new and the old ways of living coexist without butting heads with each other, without stunning a college student's emotional and intellectual growth?

The truth is that this growing up experience is a gradual process, even though the transferral process from living at home with parents to living by oneself in a college dorm or an apartment is rather abrupt and sudden. But both parents and students cannot expect things to remain exactly the same once a student is out of his or her parents' nest and in the real world. In other words, parents cannot expect their children to obey any curfews, to not experiment with alcohol and sex, and to behave exactly the way they did in high school. On the other hand, college students also cannot expect their parents to be completely okay with cutting all the communication ties and letting their children run their lives completely on their own. This transition process has to come from understanding on both students and their parents' parts - it has to be a two-way street.

There are a few pointers, however, that every college student has to keep in mind as he or she makes that life-altering transition into independent adulthood, while still in college or even while out on his or her own for the very first time:

1. It is unrealistic to expect parents to cut off all ties with their offspring, once they are out of the house. They will still call, still nag and still preach about doing the 'right thing' in the face of adversity. Sometimes, it is wise to take the parents advice, or at least pretend to listen. Who knows, sometimes parents can even offer up valuable perspectives, based on their own life experiences.

2. Being proactive and picking up a phone first can be a great way of continuously reminding the parents that their children

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